Bicycle thread

[ducnut]

Originally Posted by Ridge

I just picked up a brand new B15 swallow that I plan to race on the CAAD next year. Weight be damned, I'm racing for distance and comfort will be necessary!

Ugh! Couldn't ride that seat more than a few blocks. The Professional was the same, for me.

Originally Posted by Aurelius

It doesn't feel any harder than other saddles I've tried. In my experience with motorcycle saddles, the harder ones actually feel more comfortable over the long haul than the soft ones. I'll admit that I was put off by the Adamo at first because I couldn't understand how sitting on those two thin rails could be comfortable for even ten minutes. Fortunately the bike shop gave me a loaner to try for a couple of weeks. The first ride sold me on it.

It's the shape, not how firm, I was referring to.

[Brek81]

Originally Posted by Ridge

The bigger and plusher the saddle, the more places hot spots and pressure points can develop. This is less noticeable for shorter rides, but as you add distance and speed, the butt-to-saddle contact points needs to be more narrow and fitted to where your sit bones are located. Firm is good, but only if it fits your bottom. some good bike shops will have a saddle fit device that looks like some memory foam. This is to determine the distance between your sit bones and where the contact points should be made. A secondary variable is how your body contours to the bike and Fizik has narrowed it down to three bend profiles. Snake, Chameleon or Bull. I'm not saying these are the standard by which you should compare... just what has worked for me. I tried all makes and manner of saddles before I settled on the Fizik Antares for my road bike and Fizik Tundra for the MTB. I put Brooks on everything else.

I drank the fizik kool-aid, and have loved it ever since.

[Ridge]

Originally Posted by fullmonte

Long grinders? Have you moved to the mountainous part of NC? Maybe they have built some real trails since I left the Triangle in 2005. That area was just like it says in your location... wrong place.

Ha, I wish! I do travel and ride there quite a bit though. Have a close friend that lives in Asheville so I have free room and board whenever my schedule allows me to sneak away. We have some long trail systems within about 1-2 hours here though. Danville, VA has Angler's Ridge, Dark Mountain/Bandit's Roost/Warrior Creek is about 1.5 hours west in Wilkesboro, Greensboro is surrounded by trails now with Country Park, Owl's Roost, Wild Turkey, NE Park and Reedy Creek. Uwharrie is a couple hours SE. Compared to the trails in FL like Boyette or alafia, ours are epics... Santos would be the only set of trails that might compare to here, but they are still kind of short and punchy.

Originally Posted by ducnut

Ugh! Couldn't ride that seat more than a few blocks. The Professional was the same, for me.

Ick, don't tell me that. I have such high hopes for this saddle!

[pierce]

I had a Brooks Professional, the original kinda circa 1975. smooth copper rivets, almost black leather. fit me just fine. Back then, the B17 was the saddle they'd put on upright english 3-speeds.

I tried a fizik mountain saddle once, was loaned to me. *AWFUL* fit for my butt.

phew. Just got back from my loop around-town, same as the one I pasted a few days ago. This time it was 11 miles and a hair, 52 minutes elapsed, avg speed 12.2mph, and i didn't stop once (although I had to slow to a near stop a couple times for bike path congestion). My butt hurts, but not where I was sitting, my butt MUSCLES hurt. man, I'm outta shape.

[Craiger]

Hey Guys,
First time posting in this thread. I bought my bike and started riding Aug. 30th and have really enjoyed it. I have a quick question, I recently went clipless and went with the Crank Brothers Eggbeaters. I have had 4 rides and really like riding with the Eggbeaters but today I was about seven miles into my ride when my left foot kept released and I returned it and would make a couple revolutions and it happen again then it got to the point I could not get my foot to hooked back up. Below is a couple of pictures







My question is, has something broke??? I really don't want to return to my LBS where I bought them and look like the Noob I am. Is this something that happens that can be corrected easily that I have not figured out how to correct it.
Thanks.....

[pierce]

kinda looks like your spring came unsproinged.

look here,
http://www.crankbrothers.com/pedals_eggbeater1.php

thats the same one, right? the loops should be at 90 degrees to each other when its not on your shoe... maybe some sand got stuck, or maybe the spring came unstuck. I'd go back to the store, and go WTF?!?

[Craiger]

pierce thanks so much, your unsproinged comment made me take a second look at the spring location. The spring arm jumped past the loop and was on the front side of the loop thus released the spring tension allowing the loop to collapse. Removed the Eggbeater and compressed the spring allowing the spring arm to clear the loop and hooked the spring arm on the backside of the loop and all is as it should be....

[brianwheelies]

Originally Posted by Craiger

pierce thanks so much, your unsproinged comment made me take a second look at the spring location. The spring arm jumped past the loop and was on the front side of the loop thus released the spring tension allowing the loop to collapse. Removed the Eggbeater and compressed the spring allowing the spring arm to clear the loop and hooked the spring arm on the backside of the loop and all is as it should be....

This is why I chose Speedplay. No gizmos or springs.

[pierce]

one minor thing thats annoying me on my hybrid is the 3x8 gearing... front has a 48-38-28, and the rear is a 11,12,14,16,18,21,26,32

when I'm on the 38 or the 48, the middle gear steps are just too big so I found myself doing a lot of cross-shifting today, especially around the 26-21-18 in back.. pain in butt. and I'm sure not pushing an 11 with the big ring any time soon.

I just ordered a HG50 road 8-speed cassette to tide me over til I can do the 2x9 or 2x10 conversion. 13-14-15-17-19-21-23-26T .... that otta work out much better with the 48-38-28 front. a gear below 1:1 is just silly anyways on a city-bike like this..

eventually, this bike will get a compact 50-34 front, and a 9 or 10 speed rear, and I'll probably get a 12-28 or something. with that setup, I'd plan on staying in the 50 most of the time, and just using the 34 for big climbs.

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by pierce

one minor thing thats annoying me on my hybrid is the 3x8 gearing... front has a 48-38-28, and the rear is a 11,12,14,16,18,21,26,32

when I'm on the 38 or the 48, the middle gear steps are just too big so I found myself doing a lot of cross-shifting today, especially around the 26-21-18 in back.. pain in butt. and I'm sure not pushing an 11 with the big ring any time soon.

I just ordered a HG50 road 8-speed cassette to tide me over til I can do the 2x9 or 2x10 conversion. 13-14-15-17-19-21-23-26T .... that otta work out much better with the 48-38-28 front. a gear below 1:1 is just silly anyways on a city-bike like this..

eventually, this bike will get a compact 50-34 front, and a 9 or 10 speed rear, and I'll probably get a 12-28 or something. with that setup, I'd plan on staying in the 50 most of the time, and just using the 34 for big climbs.

You're better off leaving this bike the way it is and getting something nicer when you're ready for that compact double.

What you've got is great for what it is, but it won't be as good as you think once upgraded.

M

[ducnut]

Originally Posted by brianwheelies

This is why I chose Speedplay. No gizmos or springs.

Not true.

Speedplay have the spring/clip in the cleat. That cleat needs to be disassembled, cleaned, and lubed, on a regular basis. We have them on 3 bikes. I have CB Eggbeater 3 and Candy 3 on two bikes. For day-to-day use, I'll take the Candy 3 pedals, everytime. I can wear a casual/MTB shoe that allows me to walk around like a normal person and they're more comfortable.

[ducnut]

Originally Posted by Gummee!

You're better off leaving this bike the way it is and getting something nicer when you're ready for that compact double.

So long as you're buying, I'll take a Limited, please.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by ducnut

Not true.

Speedplay have the spring/clip in the cleat. That cleat needs to be disassembled, cleaned, and lubed, on a regular basis. We have them on 3 bikes. I have CB Eggbeater 3 and Candy 3 on two bikes. For day-to-day use, I'll take the Candy 3 pedals, everytime. I can wear a casual/MTB shoe that allows me to walk around like a normal person and they're more comfortable.

All those reasons are why my Speedplay pedals now reside in a cardboard box, having been replaced by a set of Eggbeater Candy's.

[brianwheelies]

Originally Posted by ducnut

Not true.

Speedplay have the spring/clip in the cleat. That cleat needs to be disassembled, cleaned, and lubed, on a regular basis. We have them on 3 bikes. I have CB Eggbeater 3 and Candy 3 on two bikes. For day-to-day use, I'll take the Candy 3 pedals, everytime. I can wear a casual/MTB shoe that allows me to walk around like a normal person and they're more comfortable.

You should have a look at their frog model. All bases covered.

[pierce]

Originally Posted by Gummee!

You're better off leaving this bike the way it is and getting something nicer when you're ready for that compact double.

What you've got is great for what it is, but it won't be as good as you think once upgraded.

M

my Globe is essentially a 2010 Sirrus base model, in different paint, but iwth a cromo fork instead of an aluminum one. It came with riser bars that I've already swapped out for a flat bar, along with a longer stem to get the bars where I want them

I had slapped a cheap FSA compact double on my last homebrew hybrid, and used chainring spacers so I could run a 7-8 speed chain, and really liked how it came out. I used a BB that put the chainlune such that the 50 could use all the rear gears but the 34 could only use the low 3-4. But that bike used friction shifters (old suntour thumb shifters), this one has trigger shifters so I know Ill need to swap shifters to switch to a 2x9/10 (or go back to friction, but trigger is starting to spoil me). It wasn't nearly as nice a frame as this one, but it came out pretty darn nice, I was planning on stripping it down and having the local powder coat shop do a sandblast-n-shoot on it of strawberry red.